A Beginning and an End
The meeting was long and drawn out. I’m not that fond of meetings anyway, so having one last all day can really upset my mood. Some of the worst parts of these long meetings happen when you have leaders who think that the world is motivated by every word they say. The smile may be on your face, but your mind is shouting, “Get me out of here.” I wonder how many dollars are wasted by businesses thinking they are motivating their associates when they are really just aggravating them.
One of the people I admire, however, is the President of our company. If he is present during these meetings he can’t help getting excited. It takes a very special person to get excited about plumbing products. I remember one time when he jubilantly exclaimed, “I know some people think I’m crazy, but I just get excited talking about toilets and septic systems.” It is not his joy of plumbing products that inspires me. It is, instead, the passion he expresses. I just want some of that passion juice.
Seeing, not only hearing, the passion being exhibited by our company’s President caused a little sadness to overcome me. Where could I find such passion? In a strange twist, I found it in the most unlikely of places. Most of my life I have not been very fond of anything English. Reading and writing were things other people did. Not me.
When I was younger I just loved anything Presidential. I would walk around the house telling everyone how I was going to be President one day. Over and over again I would repeat my charge. Finally, enough was enough and my Mother said she never wanted to hear another word about me being President. It somewhat silenced my passion.
One day my wife was reading the book section in the Sunday newspaper. She knew of my interest in Presidents and saw a book on President James K. Polk. The article was very interesting and I decided to buy the book. From here I developed a passion for reading. Almost my entire life I missed this hobby. Now I read all the time, especially anything about the Presidents.
Then my son-in-law decided to write a book. I was probably just as excited as he was when it was finally published. He then decided to start a blog from scratch. Wow! I really took an interest in how he started it. I decided that might be something I could try doing, too. He has really been a great help in getting me started on this website. He has also encouraged me, sometimes even when he didn’t know it, when I have gotten discouraged.
One thing about writing a blog is when grammar is not your strong suit you basically have to learn to write. You can have the best ideas ever and practice all you want, but if there isn’t someone there to correct your mistakes, you don’t learn to right very well. That was a play on words, I know it is “write.” Here is where my wife and GMa (my mother-in-law) tag team me. Very few of my blogs get published without their corrections. They really don’t know how much I appreciate their corrections. Without those corrections, I would never learn to express myself through proper words or wording.
I found my passion! My love of anything Presidential, my love for my God, and being able to take my life and express it through writing have let me combine it all in a pot that I believe I can call passion. Maybe passion is a learned behavior or at the very least something you have to work at or not give up on.
He was a little bit of a proper gentleman. He was quiet, and not too fond of calling attention to himself. He sometimes had a hard time associating with other people, especially members of the opposite sex. He found a room to rent near the Clarke School for the Deaf. Alexander Graham Bell had helped establish this school. Robert Weir, his friend, had become steward of the school and as part of his compensation he received this house. Robert would rent out part of the house to him.
One day he was getting ready for work. It was probably much like every other day. He probably had his routine. Maybe some coffee. Maybe he read the newspaper. But one thing we know is that he would shave. He would stand at the bathroom window and look into the mirror and get the razor as close as he could. We may never know if he did this special thing every day or if it just happened on this one particular day. At least from the stories that are told of this day, he wore a hat while he was shaving.
What was that he heard? It sounded like a giggle. He looked around. There it was again, another giggle. He looked down into the courtyard and there was the source. It was Grace. She was a teacher at Clarke and was watering the flowers on the lawn outside her dormitory. Seeing a man shave in a hat and a tee shirt made her giggle out loud. When she noticed that he saw her watching him shave she blushed with embarrassment. What he saw was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen before. They would get together and eventually marry. They would be married for years and I’m sure there were many times she would walk in on him while he was shaving. She would probably still have an innocent giggle as she recalled their first encounter.
Sometimes when something goes really bad in your life you are determined to never get burnt again. You were trusting the first time and no one is going to ever make a fool of you like that again. When passion gets suppressed a wall goes up and it is so hard to tear down that wall. He was one of those passion burnt people. He was excited. He believed. Now he felt like a fool and he was going to make sure it never happened again.
One of the problems with the defense of never being burnt by passion again is that you spend so much time defending against the hurt and you just might miss out on the things that make happiness happen. When your heart is on fire for a cause or a person, something amazing happens. Life is better. Life is happier. Life has a purpose.
Most of the disciples had a passion for Christ. They lived with Him. They saw the miracles. They were even willing to die for Him. Then Jesus did something they never expected. He died. What was worse, He wouldn’t even let them fight for Him as the Roman guards were taking Him away. But there was one of them that took it very hard and he was going to make sure it never happened to him again. His name was Thomas. Most call him “Doubting Thomas.” But Thomas may not have had such a problem with doubt as he did with protecting himself from having his passion destroyed again. He wasn’t going to be burnt again. Then there was Jesus standing right in front of him. “Why have you lost your passion, Thomas?” Jesus might have asked. “I told you exactly what was going to happen. Blessed are those who don’t need proof that their passions are real. When all seems lost or times get hard these people will stand by their passions,” He might have continued.
Calvin Coolidge had recently left the Presidency and was looking forward to finally getting on with retirement. Herbert Hoover needed his help to get elected, so reluctantly he helped him with a few campaign speeches. Now he was finished with that and was home. Finally, just he and his wife were in retirement. It was the start of another day. He was upstairs getting ready, probably much like the day his future wife saw him with the hat in the window shaving. Breakfast was done and she called up to Cal, but unlike himself, he didn’t answer. She climbed the stairs and went into the bathroom. Her sweetheart was not shaving but was laying on the floor. It didn’t take her long to realize he was dead. He had died of a heart attack.
Cal and Grace came a long way through their life together. The spark that started their relationship was remembered at its end. Passion is sometimes like that. We may have a passion for the Presidents that goes dormant for a little while, only to be stirred up by people along our path. We may have to come face to face with the passion we thought we lost, like Thomas. But passion is what makes this world such a wonderful place to live in.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Thank You for passion. It raises our lives to higher levels. When it hurts us by its departure we get discouraged. Please grant me the strength to not give up on her. Amen.
